Last weeks article was mainly about Justine Suissa and her collaboration with the Above & Beyond-guys Tony, Paavo & Jono with Oceanlab. So I thought ”why not do a piece on the guys for this weekends article?”. After all, Above & Beyond has done some really classic tracks over the years.

Sailing away from me like melting snow in my hair
I miss your touch,
Trying to sew up a love that was built on the sun
I miss you so much
Like a fire burns to embers
I know this is where it ends
In the ashes we are dying
almost strangers only friends

Far from in love x4

Far from in love (So far from love)
Far from in love
Far from in love (So away from love yeah yeah..)
Far from in love (From all the loving that I knew)

I can see behind your eyes that you’re afraid of who you are
Only silence now between us
I’m amazed we’ve come this far

Far from in love x4

Far from in love (So far from love)
Far from in love
Far from in love (So away from love yeah yeah..)
Far from in love (From all the loving that I knew)

The Above & Beyond-story started in 1999 when Jono Grant & Paavo Siljamäki studied electronic engineering at the University of Westminister where they discovered a mutual interest in electronic music. After working together writing music, Paavo suggested that they should start their own record label, and Anjunabeats was started, mainly to release their own material and later became one of the most influentual trancemusic-labels in the world.

Tony McGuinness was at the time marketing director & manager of the Warner Music Group and had been commissioned to remix a new single from Chakra called Home and needed help. Tony asked his brother Liam for help and he pointed him in the direction of Jono & Paavo who eventually helped him finish the remix.

The inspiration for the name Above & Beyond came from a website for an american motvation trainer, who’s name coincidentally also was Jono Grant and used the name Above & Beyond as a slogan and it eventually stuck. The remix was eventually picked over the more established names as Rob Searle & Tilt to be the a-side and later peaked at no 1 in the UK club charts and got loads of support by the major dj’s.

Their biggest commercial success came with the remix of Madonna – What It Feels Like For A Girl. Madonna was so impressed with the track that Above & Beyonds version was used in the official video over Madonnas album-version. The video, directed by Guy Ritchie was pretty violent so MTV couldn’t play it before 9pm. The track had good chart-success all over the world except in the US where it only reached no 23 in the Billboard Hot 100.

Their first own success came in 2002 with the release of their first single, Far From In Love (with singer Kate Cameron who also sang on the Chakra-singles). I’d recommend the epic San Fransisco Mix before the original mix which is one of those feel good-tracks although the track is about a breakup. I believe it has to do with the amazing, almost angelic vocals by Kate Cameron.

Above & Beyonds debut album, Tri-State was released in early 2006 and got good reviews and contained loads of new tracks like Alone Tonight, Can’t Sleep, Good For Me & Home. I higly recommend everyone to take a listen to the album, a true masterpiece.

Alone Tonight (with singer Richard Bedford) became another hit and was nominated for best progressive house/trance track at the 22nd International Dance Music Awards at WMC in Miami 2007. It did fairly well in the charts, peaking at no 5 in the UK Dance Chart and no 4 in the Finnish national singles chart.

Good For Me (with singer Zoe Johnston) was another success and later voted Tune Of The Year 2006 on A State Of Trance. The album version is a really slow track and I prefer the Above & Beyond Club Mix before the other remixes

The last single from the Tri-State album was Home (with singer Hannah Thomas). The album version is a really sweet slow track whereas the club mix gets the partygoers jumping. The track eventually was voted no 3 by the listeners to A State Of Trance in 2007.

I really love Above & Beyonds original and remixes up to 2006 and the Tri-state album. Back then you knew that everything connected to the Above & Beyond-brand was pure trance and had lots of feeling to it. The last years they (as most other major DJs) has been shifting style, usually for the more ”housy”-stuff while Above & Beyond has gone for the more techy style of trance which still is good. But what I miss is those warm strings, those almost angelic vocals and overall older sound that they did pre 2006.

I’d still love to see them live as it was some 4 years since I saw them last. I hope they will be on tour in my neck of the woods soon so I can fall in love with their sound once again.